In Olympia, Northwest Lesbian Gay Film Festival In 9Th Year, Opens Tonight

Filmmakers Michael Wallin, Barbara Hammer and Eve Sicular will attend the ninth edition of the Northwest International Lesbian Gay Film Festival, starting tonight at the Capitol Theater in downtown Olympia. It continues through the weekend at the Capitol Theater and Evergreen State College.

At 7 o'clock tonight, Wallin will show and discuss his latest film, "Black Sheep Boy," along with "Decodings" and "The Place Between Our Bodies." The 9:30 p.m. show is made up of Jackie Lawrence's short, "Double Entente," and Shu Lea Cheang's feature-length satire, "Fresh Kill." At midnight, Barry Purves' homoerotic version of Greek myth, "Achilles," will be shown with Peter Mackenzie's AIDS fantasy, "Heaven's a Drag."

Hammer, who was the keynote speaker for the first festival, is a former Evergreen faculty member. She will show "Nitrate Kisses" and the Northwest premiere of "Tender Fictions," at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Capitol Theater.

All other events will take place at Evergreen, where Yiddish film expert Sicular will discuss "Lesbian & Gay Subtext in Yiddish Films," at 4 p.m. Sunday in Lecture Hall 1.

Screenings scheduled at Evergreen include Shawna Rae Sinkler's "Read This Before Coming Out to Your Parents," 11 a.m. tomorrow; a trilogy of early films by Terence Davies, 1:30 p.m. tomorrow; Todd Verlow's "Frisk," 4 p.m. tomorrow; Steven Okazaki's "Alone Together," 1:30 p.m. Sunday; and Charlene Roycht's "14 Women and a Gold Medal Dream," 4 p.m. Sunday.

Film programs are $5 each; Hammer's program is $6. Full series passes are $45. They're available in Seattle at Bailey Coy Books, and in Olympia at Rainy Day Records. Information: (360) 866-6000, extension 6542.

Cuban festival at 911

911 Media Arts Center, 117 Yale Ave. N., is holding a mini-festival of Cuban films this weekend and next.

Sonja de Vries' feature-length 1995 documentary, "Gay Cuba," plays at 7 and 9 tonight. De Vries acknowledges Cuba's history of work camps for gays and the quarantining of HIV-positive people. But she also demonstrates how much has changed.

Lesbians hold hands in the street, drag shows are clearly popular and gay men show affection for each other on a public park bench. Last year's Oscar-nominated Cuban movie about gay men, "Strawberry and Chocolate," is regarded as a turning point, "a social phenomenon" and "an essential moment in our society's development."

Tomorrow's schedule includes 7 and 9 p.m. screenings of "Cuba Va: The Challenge of the Next Generation," a lively 1992 documentary about young Cubans' attitudes toward post-Cold War change and their country's enforced isolation from the rest of the world. It will be introduced by University of Puget Sound philosophy professor Maricela Fleites-Lear, who is featured in the movie.

At 7 p.m. Saturday, May 11, 911 will screen Juan Carlos Tabio's "Plaff!," a delightful 1988 send-up of Latin American soap operas. The 9 p.m. feature that night will be "One Way or Another," a 1974 mixture of documentary and fiction about life in Havana during the revolution.

Sunday, May 12, is reserved for a tribute to Tomas Gutierrez Alea, Cuba's most acclaimed director, who died last month. His 1966 satire, "Death of a Bureaucrat," will be shown at 7 p.m., followed at 9 p.m. by his ironic 1968 film about the then-new Cuba, "Memories of Underdevelopment." Gutierrez and Tabio co-directed "Strawberry and Chocolate."

Tickets are $4 for 911 members, $6 for others. Proceeds will benefit the Seattle-Cuba youth exchange, which plans to travel to Cuba in July. The festival is sponsored by the Church Council of Greater Seattle's Latin American Task Force.

Around town

"Labor's Turning Point," a prize-winning documentary about the 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters' Strike, will be shown at 8 p.m. tomorrow at the New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Ave. S. Tickets are $2. A "strike kitchen" dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. for an $8.50 donation. Information: 722-2453 or 722-6057. . . . At 7 p.m. Wednesday, American Movie Classics will present James Whale's 1931 version of "Frankenstein," starring Boris Karloff and Colin Clive, at United Artists Cinemas . . . The Sanctuary Theater (upstairs at Scarecrow Video) is showing a rare CinemaScope print of Otto Preminger's cultish 1965 thriller starring Laurence Olivier, "Bunny Lake Is Missing," at 7 and 9 p.m. tonight through Sunday. Next weekend: the wide-screen version of Robert Altman's "HEALTH" . . . The silent William S. Hart Western, "The Narrow Trail," gets another couple of showings at 7:30 and 9:30 tonight at the Speakeasy, 2304 Second Ave. in Belltown. Tickets are $7 for the show, which includes live music . . . The Seattle Art Museum's weekly series, "Empire of Dreams: The Films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger," continues at 7:30 p.m. Thursday with "Black Narcissus". . . Seattle Arts, the Seattle Arts Commission's weekly television show, airs at 7 p.m. tomorrow on Seattle's muncipal cable channel 28. Local arts-in-education projects will be showcased, including the videos "Young Shakespeare Workshop" and "Legend of the White Snake Fairy."Out of town

The Kenneth Branagh/Laurence Fishburne version of Shakespeare's "Othello" has turned up again at the historic Everett Theater, which will screen it at 7:30 tonight and tomorrow, and 2 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3.50 for students and senior citizens and matinee showings . . . The Olympia Film Society is showing the Burkina Faso film, "Samba Traore," at 6:30 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday at the Capitol Theater in downtown Olympia. Also on the program is the restoration of Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver." At 8 p.m. Thursday, the society is screening "Priestley's Picks" at the same location. It's a collection of Portland animator Joanna Priestley's work, including "Grown Up" (1993) and "Hand Held" (1995). Tickets are $3 for members, $5 for non-members. . . The Cannes Film Festival opens Thursday and runs through May 20.